Miley Cyrus stuck up for her pal and fellow pop icon Justin Bieber in an interview on Monday (June 16), saying he just needs ‘time to grow up.’

The 21-year-old singer sat down with the ‘Today Show’ in Australia to discuss her ‘Bangerz’ tour when she was asked about the Biebs’ recent and highly publicized legal issues, including a DUI and a case of vandalism.

The ‘Bangerz’ star had some words of wisdom to share about Justin’s recent headlines. “Social media is such a blessing,” she said. “Everyone’s allowed to have an opinion. I think what’s important — is I think people need to sit and think about the times in their lives that they were not proud of who they were, and imagine if that was completely exploited and everyone had their opinions.”

She added, “I think people just got to have time to grow up and figure out who they are.”

While some of Justin’s behavior isn’t excusable, Miley makes a very valid point that he’s living in the public eye and every mistake he makes is magnified tenfold by the media.

As far as how she handles the scrutiny, the ‘Adore You’ singer tries to ignore the media’s prying eyes and focus on what’s most important to her: the music.

“I think a lot of people who don’t know this life, they would choose fame, because they don’t understand,” she shared. “I guess I was a lot more conscious of it going into it. I knew the ups and downs of it, because I’ve grown up around it. But, you know, at the end of it, it’s just about making music.”